In his first fight in a new division, Rafael dos Anjos appeared to be the fresher fighter, and without getting overpowered by longtime welterweight Tarec Saffiedine.

That paid off down the stretch as dos Anjos (26-9 MMA, 15-7 UFC) wore Saffiedine (16-7 MMA, 2-4 UFC) down with body shots and constant pressure, riding to a clear unanimous decision victory in the process.

The welterweight bout opened up the main card of today’s UFC Fight Night 111 event at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. It streamed on UFC Fight Pass.

Despite the happy ending, things didn’t necessarily get off to the greatest start for dos Anjos. As he focused on working Saffiedine’s body with kicks, he kicked his way into a Saffiedine takedown in the bout’s opening moments. But dos Anjos would soon scramble up to his feet and go right back to battering the body in close, eventually getting a takedown of his own to even the score, and soon Saffiedine’s output began to slow.

The pressure from dos Anjos only increased in the second, as he peppered Saffiedine with knees in the clinch and shoved him around in a front headlock, controlling the bulk of the action when the fight stayed at close range. Saffiedine managed to find some success when he kept dos Anjos at range, mostly by slipping jabs and firing back, but as the second round gave way to the third he found himself moving backward too much to be effective.

For his part, dos Anjos rarely stopped his forward progress, and he was still attacking the body with lunging hooks even in the bout’s final minute. All three judges rewarded that work rate in the end, scoring the fight for dos Anjos across the board and giving him the victory with scores of 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28.

The win for dos Anjos is his first since dropping two in a row at lightweight in 2016. Saffiedine has now lost three straight and four of his past five.

On March 19, 2011, 23-year-old Jon Jones brutalized UFC light heavyweight champion “Shogun” Rua to become the youngest titleholder in UFC history. But for Jones, it was only the start of a wild ride that at times spun out of control.